


Azaleas

by Cutebeast64



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:46:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25375636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cutebeast64/pseuds/Cutebeast64
Summary: Do you know what Azaleas mean in flower language?They mean 'take care of yourself for me'.A small drabble about Hiyori wanting Ibara to take better care of himself.
Relationships: Saegusa Ibara/Tomoe Hiyori
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32
Collections: Enstars Rarepair Week





	Azaleas

Opening the door to an improvised dressing room, made exclusively for a special handshake event in a newly opened mall, Ibara was met with nothing but silence and emptiness.

Breath in, breath out.

He looked down at his wristwatch for a second. A deep sigh leaving thin lips, he pushed up his glasses just enough to be able to pinch the bridge of his nose with his dominant hand.

He really, REALLY, had no time for this… There were emails he needed to answer, events he needed to organize and meetings he had to prepare for. Half a mountain of paperwork still waiting at his office…

There was little to be achieved by lamenting this miscalculation -and the consequent mess in his schedule, so he refrained from doing so. If anything, he decided to be glad Hiyori was professional enough to disappear AFTER the handshake event and not before.

Reaching for his flip-phone, Ibara dialed Hiyori’s number by memory and brought it up to his ear. The ringing eventually leading to voicemail…

He clicked his tongue.

If only Jun was here, he thought vaguely. With his well-honed hound senses, developed through more than a year of dealing with Hiyori, Jun was a much better fit for this missing-child job than Ibara.

Too bad he had left earlier with Nagisa… 

His call went once more into voicemail. A sigh leaving thin lips, he let his shoulders drop for a second before straightening back up and stepping out of the empty room. A few nods at the employees that passed by, he walked fast and precise - annoyance making itself evident in every heavy step he gave.

Blue eyes scanned around the halls as he rushed through them, peeking through the windows of any store elegant enough to peek Hiyori’s attention and stopping at every bakery he could find.

One full tour around the unnecessarily big mall later, he lacked as many clues as when he started. A stroke of concern mixing along the canvas of his annoyance, he reached once more for his phone, mindlessly typing Hiyori’s number before bringing it to his ear. This time however, the ringing noise he was already growing tired of hearing, happened to match with the start of a familiar ringtone coming from close by.

Body weight shifting as he looked to pinpoint the source of that musical tune, blue eyes caught sight of a familiar silhouette – the broad shoulders and perfectly straight back, the expensive outfit and even the fluffy light-colored hair that bounced right on top of it all.

“Your Majesty!” he called out, hoping that’d give him enough time to catch up before Hiyori would disappear from his range of sight. However, Hiyori didn’t seem to hear him.

A couple of long strides taking him close enough he could reach forward to catch him, fingers clasping from one of the sleeves in Hiyori’s white shirt.

That seemed to finally catch his attention, held mid-step, and forced to look back.

“Oh? I was wondering who could have grabbed my clothes. If it isn’t our little snake~” Hiyori observed, giving a look at Ibara from over his shoulders. The surprised wide eyes eventually narrowing into their usual gleeful expression. “That’s perfect~ You just saved me the trouble of looking for you, what a good weather~”

Noticing that Hiyori was turning around to face him Ibara immediately released the hold on his shirt and stepped back once respectfully.

And what a good choice that proved to be, given the giant bouquet of flowers he was hugging close to his body. It was a full set - flashy and pompous, the big and colorful center flowers surrounded by the deep green of leaves and the tender white of smaller flowers. The wrapping looked expensive – plastic-like transparent paper with pink borders, and a big bright bow at the bottom.

He quickly snapped his attention away from the flowers and back up at Hiyori’s smile – not a hint of regret to cloud the brightness of it. Annoyance turning around his stomach, Ibara frowned ever so lightly, forcing a smile to appear on his face despise his anger.

“My pleasure! I was quite concerned after His Majesty suddenly vanished from the waiting room.” His words were inevitably charged with poison, the corners of his mouth twitching lightly with contained anger.

Of course, Hiyori didn’t react to his anger – it was a mystery if he had even _noticed_ it. His smile even brighter than before as he pushed the bouquet towards Ibara’s chest, with enough forcefulness to make him lean back.

“Here, these are for you”

“Excuse me?” Ibara’s frown went even deeper – but he still reached up to hold the bouquet when Hiyori let go. It did look _expensive_ after all, so letting it get ruined by it falling to the floor. “May I ask what train of thought led you to _this_?”

He for sure had never asked for flowers, nor show any interest in them. It totally looked like the present a girl would love, so why give it to _him_.

“Hey, what’s with that sour look? Your very own Tomoe Hiyori went out of his way to get you this very expensive present! You could at least give me a smile!”

As forceful as always, huh?

“My, my, I am honored by your thoughtfulness. Thank you very much your Majesty” he forced a smile into his lips, gifting him a matching military salute “Yet, and as much as a appreciate this gesture, I would very much rather have you keep on schedule. We’re already running 30 minutes late…”

“God, you’re so stiff! Relax, breath! It’s not like we have anything scheduled after this either. You just want to hole yourself up in that office of yours, am I wrong?” Hiyori crooked an eyebrow in disbelief – the gesture being more than enough to make Ibara recoil “You are such a workaholic! It’s not healthy!”

“If I may say something, dealing paperwork is an important part of Eden’s success…” he tried to cut Hiyori’s nagging.

“Your health is just as important to Eden’s success, am I wrong?” Hiyori interrupted, as demanding as always. His point so clear cut Ibara was left without words “There you go. You can’t say anything because I’m right. As always~”

It was true that with Eden’s growing popularity, Ibara had gotten busier and busier – quite inevitably so, given he juggled being an idol, manager, and company executive all at once.

“I’m taking good care of myself, Your Majesty” he tried to say, words slowly dying inside his throat as Hiyori stared for a bit too long into his eyes.

“Now that’s just plain lies” Hiyori stated reaching forward with those long fingers of his to trail at Ibara’s jawline, before settling for his chin, pushing it up slightly. A mischievous smile now gracing those perfectly prince-like features of him “You haven’t even made time for me, you little snake~”

Ibara gulped, freezing at the unexpected contact… the quick beating of his heart translating into a blush that spread across his features. Mind going blank, all the words he could usually drop in a second seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving him opening and closing his mouth like a fish trying to breath.

“Did I leave you speechless, my little snake?” Hiyori mused out-loud, releasing his chin not without giving it a playful push upwards first.

Ibara frowned again, lips pursed tightly as he found it quite annoying to be played with.

“Say Ibara-chan, do you know what these are?” Hiyori finally opened his mouth again after a few moments, pretty hands of long fingers reaching towards the bouquet to pull out one of the many flowers in it.

“…I do not” he replied curtly, blue eyes avoiding direct contact with the lavender hues of the heir.

“Azaleas. In flower language they mean ‘Take care of yourself for me’”

Ibara’s body tensed lightly at the words, lips pressing close together again. So, was this some fancy, round-about way of telling him to stop working so hard?

“While _I appreciate_ the thought, I’m taking care of myself just fine” he finally said, moving the bouquet so it would be resting again his chest, giving him enough leverage to release his right hand from it and instead reach up to fix his glasses, daring to glance at Hiyori through them “His Majesty shouldn’t worry too much about the likes of me”

“There you go, talking badly about yourself” Hiyori shook his head, letting out one very concerned sigh. Lavender eyes soon looking up to meet with Ibara’s, a caring smile appearing on those soft lips “You’re always so clumsy when it comes to accepting people’s kindness. Or being kind to yourself.”

Ibara’s frown became harsher at the words. He wasn’t _clumsy_ , he was just _underserving_. Very different words if you asked him. Still, judging by Hiyori’s expression he wouldn’t listen to anything Ibara had to say on the matter right now.

A small cracking sound brought his attention down to the flower Hiyori had picked from the bouquet. He’d bent the long stem a good five centimeters below the flower, and was now twisting it around ever so carefully… in just a few moments, the stem was thin enough to snap, and the longer part of the stem was left forgotten in the floor.

“There we go” Hiyori smiled at his work, rather satisfied by the look of it. Eyes squinting gleefully, he reached up with his free hand to comb at Ibara’s soft hair, brushing it behind his ear as he continued to talk “Flower language is rather complex, when you look at old rules. Either Victorian or Japanese. The color of the flowers, the number of them – even the person they were destined to, could change their meaning. When men gifted Azaleas to their beloved ones, it had a second meaning of ‘keep yourself beautiful for me’”

His tone as he explained was calm and slightly deeper than usual – it captured Ibara’s attention, drawing his eyes towards that beautiful face of his. Long eyelashes casting a small shadow over his eyes and cheeks. It also distracted him for long enough for the pretty Azalea to be set on top of his ear, tangled lightly with the hair that had been combed back there.

“Ah, it looks great. I knew it would suit your pretty face~” Hiyori praised right away, clasping his hands in an approving gesture.

Heat spontaneously spreading through his body, Ibara’s face twisted into an awkward display of utter annoyance.

“Maybe I should recommend you an optometrist then, since your eyes clearly need a checking” he spit the words at almost the same speed as his heart was bouncing.

“Again with that? How rude!” Hiyori sighed, crossing his arms over the middle of his chest with annoyance “To imply my taste is anything but impeccable!”

“It sure is. I could understand picking a _stray_ as Jun. But minding _me-_?” he was ready to go on a very long rant about every single thing wrong with himself – from which there was plenty- but Hiyori’s _truly_ angered face stopped him on his track.

“You better shut your trap Ibara.” His voice was almost chilling “Even if it’s _you_ , I won’t forgive you for berating the person I love.”

Ibara tensed again – the indirect expression of ‘love’ more than enough to make him feel vulnerable and helpless.

He… wasn’t completely unaware of the type of feelings the second son of the Tomoe family harbored towards him. Even if he couldn’t quite wrap his head around _why_ or _how,_ Hiyori was straightforward enough not even Ibara could feign ignorance…

Body completely tense, he hugged the bouquet a bit too hard – lifting it up as to keep a barrier between him and the dazzling man before him. The plastic wrapping taking the worst part of it all as it crumbled horribly under his fingers – more alike claws by now.

This was too much… even as a snake that can’t warm itself up, the direct presence of the sun was too much…

“God, you get so tense over these things. There, don’t make that face.” Hiyori said. Fake annoyance covering the actual concern as he reached forward to pat his shoulder. At least being nagged wasn’t as difficult to understand as being ‘loved’ or whatever “Here, a proposal! Let’s go eat some sweets together, yeah?”

The word sweets managed to work its magic, as Ibara’s shoulders dropped lightly and his blue eyes looked up longingly.

“It’ll be my treat. Anything you want” Hiyori added in a proud tone.

“Ah, but… there’s really a lot of work left to do…”

“You can do that later, or have someone else do it” Hiyori cut him, dismissing the worries with a small swat of the hand “Right now the best you can do for Eden – and for me, is to get some rest.”

He finally gave in, a small nod confirming that he wanted to go with Hiyori.

“Yes, yes, that’s a perfect weather!” Hiyori chirped, pulling Ibara along…

It was still confusing… to have such a bright person pour all his love and attention into him. But he didn’t hate it. As much as he wanted to… as much as he feared getting used to it…

He held tighter to the bouquet in his arms… the single proof that someone out there cared for him.

"Take care of yourself for me'... Hiyori knew him well... if anything, he could maybe care a bit more about his own health if it was for Hiyori's sake... To keep those lavender eyes fixed in him for a bit longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes... i love Hiyori and Ibara as ship. All of Eden is very good tbh, and i love all the possible ships between them but these 2 are the ones with less content together (i think??) so I feel myself inclined to write them more... maybe this is the rareship sickness where i just naturally prefer the rarest ship in a bunch - BUT ALSO THEY ARE JUST SO CUTE! I want Hiyori to spoil Ibara rotten! Maybe next time I'll write him spoiling him in bed too fufufufu


End file.
